Roger's Gardens, Corona del Mar

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. …

And feel like Christmas, too.

(Well, except for the 87 degree weather.)

But we had a very holiday-ish weekend — kicked off by an elegant office party Friday night  in Newport Beach, followed by Christmas shopping, present-wrapping, our first Christmas cards, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life,” family brunch with good friends, popcorn eating, more present-wrapping, and a visit to Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, which has the most fabulous holiday decorations ever.

Roger’s Gardens is a garden shop, originating here in Orange County in the 1970s, but it’s more than just a nursery — it’s a virtual kaleidoscope of color and beauty — everything done with the epitome of taste and elegance. And now it’s become quite a tourist attraction. It houses the original bandstand from Disneyland circa 1955 (Santa poses there for pictures at Christmas; the Easter Bunny arrives in the spring), and has a long-running tiny miniature train that the kids love to look at. It’s also known for its Christopher Radko room, where the designer shows up from time to time to sign his signature ornaments.

It’s fun to visit Roger’s Gardens in the spring, for all the amazing flowers and rows and rows of hanging baskets, but my favorite time to go is during the fall and winter — for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas — when Roger’s outdoes itself with the most amazing decorations. Everything has a base in nature, which is probably why I love it so much. For fall, they decorate with gourds, chrystanthemums, twigs and berries (but have excellent goulish Halloween decorations, too — if you can picture “elegant Halloween” in bright purple, white and black). Then for Christmas and winter, they do up the evergreens, poinsettias, paperwhites and pinecones. It’s a feast for the eyes.

Here’s what we saw:

Nathan by the year-round miniature train, which is decked out now for Christmas:

The kids checking out the trees for sale. They both wanted to bring that garganuan one home!

I loved these paperwhite lilies en masse. They had beds and beds of them, in both red and white. They looked so pretty in the winter light:

Roger’s also has such pretty decorated trees. The light was just gorgeous:

The Christopher Radko room. This picture doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a small room, but thousands of these ornaments line three walls. It takes your breath away when you first walk in:

The “tree room” at one side of the gardens is filled with themed trees, overflowing with fun and unique ornaments. Yeah, that price tag says $24.99. I can’t afford anything there. I just go to look:

But there was free gorgeousness everywhere:

It always gets me in the mood for Christmas!

What did you do this weekend that felt holiday-ish?